Canon and Samsung in HD camcorder bonanza!

The Gadget Show  Tuesday 06 January 2009

Capture the full beauty of your visage (or not) with these ten HD camcorders from Canon and Samsung

It looks like there’s a storm brewing… a Hi-Def camcorder storm. No sooner does Canon announce a new range of HD home video shooters, Samsung comes up the rear with a lightning bolt and announces its own.

First up is Canon’s new range, featuring five tiny newbies that are so small they’ll make your hand look like it’s been swollen to a grotesque size after it’s been bitten by a radioactive flea. The VIXIA HF S10 and S100 are both Flash models with up to 32GB of storage and have an SD card slot for further expansion. They’ll also be packed with an orgy of Canon tech, including DIGIC DV III image processors, 8.59-megapixel Full HD CMOS sensors and face detection.

Also in Canon’s mini range are the HF20 and HF200. They both feature a 3.59-megapixel Full HD CMOS sensor and a 15x lens for zooming in on ants or Tom Cruise. Completing Canon’s range is the HV40 HDV, which offers a 2.96-megapixel Full HD sensor, 10x zoom, native 24p support and a Custom Key Mode.

On to Samsung’s lot. Imaginatively named the H-Series, and we have to admit, they look the business. They’re bedecked with high-end features and components too: the HMX-H106, HMX-H105, HMZ-H104 and HMX-H100 all have Full HD sensors and Schneider Kreuznach Varioplan HD lenses. And then there’s the H106. This bad boy is the first Full HD camcorder to house a 64GB SSD, and can hold a whopping 12 hours of Full HD footage.

So that’s no less than ten new camcorders for you to get to grips with. So, are we excited? Do elephants wee out of their trunks? No. But yes. Yes, we are.